To any D3, Crystal Reports Developers:
EUREKA!!!
I have found the problem and its solution…
The problem:
Our D3 account names have a period (.) in them. This makes them inaccessible using ODBC. To get around this issue, we have created Q-pointers without the “dots”, affectionately known as “dotless” accounts. Thus PSF.TEST becomes PSFTEST. When setting up the ODBC driver we specify the “dotless” account name, i.e. PSFTEST. The ODBC driver doesn’t care what we enter and simply accepts anything (text). Only at the time of connection do we find out if the account name has been correctly entered, or exists, i.e. if no error occurs, then the account name is correct (and it exists).
In our case, the “dotless” Q-pointer was missing from the MDS. This caused the system to go through the Windows 32 bit odbcad32.exe instead of the RainingData (now RocketSoftware) ODBC Parameters Manager, and of course not able to connect to the account even if I did fill in the parameters correctly.
The solution:
Create a”dotless” Q-pointer in the MDS for the “dotted” account name.
I would not have expected any non D3 CR Developers or Support people to know of this issue.
At least now it's in the cloud for all to see (including me, when it happens the next time).
Thanks to those who tried to help. Much appreciated. 